Page 29 of Saving You

“No. She and Alora have their heads so far up Darcy’s ass. They really thought their fuck-face plan was going to work.” Now, Grady sounded angry. “The look on Oz’s face, man…”

He trailed off as Ridge did his best not to think about it, but how could he forget? Oz had worn that shattered expression all evening.

“Alora and I aren’t talking right now,” Grady said quietly. “I’m in the guest room. She begged me not to tell anyone right before I left for work.”

Ridge’s brows flew up. “She’s more concerned with how your marriage looks than what she did to her brother?”

Grady nodded, giving Ridge a long, careful look, then headed for the showers. Part of Ridge wanted to wait until he was done so the conversation would be over. He was tired, damn it. He hadn’t heard from Oz since he left, and he’d spent all morning worried out of his mind.

But he was also standing in front of an ally, and Oz didn’t have many of those in his family. In the end, he got up off the bench, undressed, then followed his friend to the stall beside him. When the water began to run down his back, he was finally able to take a deep breath.

“How is he?” Grady asked after a long beat.

Ridge winced. “Better than I would be, I think. Pissed. Hurt. Sad.”

“Shit.” Grady was quiet again, and then Ridge heard the loud farting noise of his shampoo bottle. “You think he’d talk to me if I swung by his place?”

“I don’t think he’d turn you away, but I think he’ll be worried you’ll end up taking Alora’s side when things settle down.” Ridge didn’t know that for sure, but that’s how he was feeling. He liked Grady. He wanted the best for him. But Christ, he didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him, and Grady was a big dude.

Grady was silent for a long moment, and Ridge felt kind of bad.

“Hey, sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”

“Nah, I get it. Why don’t you pass along a message for me? Tell him that if he needs anything, I’m here.”

“I can do that,” Ridge said. He stuck his head under the water, then lathered up as quickly as he could while also getting properly clean. “Thanks for not being a dick about all this.”

“It’s the least I can do. Anyway, I know you like him, so?—”

“I don’tlikehim,” Ridge said, a little too fast to not be giving himself away.Shit.

Grady laughed, and then his water shut off, and Ridge could hear the flop flop flop of his shower sandals on the tile. “I’m not gonna sell you out either, man. I swear.”

Ridge groaned softly and shut off his shower, grabbing his towel before he made his way out. He gave Grady a look as they walked back to their lockers, and he sat down to dry his hair. “How obvious am I?”

Grady snorted, reaching for his boxers and jeans. “I’ve seen worse, but I think with you signing at home, your face gives you away more than it would have before.”

That figured. He wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it sucked constantly wearing his heart on his sleeve. “You think Oz knows?”

“I think Oz wouldn’t care either way. He might be a hard little nut in a tough shell, but he’s a good guy. He’d never make you feel like shit for your feelings. But I also don’t think he knows. I don’t think he’d take advantage of you like that if he did. Not even in the middle of a crisis.”

Well, that was something.

“And it probably helps that he’s straight, right?” Crap. Ridge forgot that Oz hadn’t come out before the party, and now Grady thought it was all part of the lie. “Those unattainable crushes on straight guys tend to blow over pretty quick,” Grady added.

“Wait, how would you know about crushes on straight guys?” Ridge demanded.

Grady’s ears turned pink. “I might have had a thing for the quarterback on my high school team. But he was straight as a goddamn steel arrow.”

“Oh, shit. I didn’t know you were bi,” Ridge murmured softly. Man, secrets were coming out all over the place and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. Were his next?

Grady shrugged. “I’m not really in the closet or anything. I’ve just been with Alora for so long it’s hard to remember what those early days were like, you know? But yeah, I figured my shit out in high school and kissed a few guys my first semester of college.”

“Alora knows?”

Grady rolled his eyes as he rubbed his roller ball deodorant on his pits. “She used to try and convince me to make out with my friends when we went to parties together. It always gave me the ick, but I figured she was drunk.” He looked down and sat hard on the bench. “I think I’ve been excusing a lot of her red flags for a while now.”

“It happens.” Ridge reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Maybe you and her can work this out though, you know? Something’s gotta wake her up to the way she’s been acting.”

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